Dragon (4 Patchwall 586 OY, 12/6/98 RL) Elmarth, Mojo, Diyab, and Camen climb down a rope ladder from the Hagfish to the coal-like surface of Kule. They are on the far side from Oerth and the sun Liga, so it is cold and dark, save for a sky full of stars. Nearby is a ring of 9 tall monoliths, and farther off is a crashed Wasp ship. Scattered between the ring and the ship are a number of dead orcs and several dead humans. All are frozen and lack air envelopes. The humans carry the unholy symbol of the demigod Iuz. All around the bodies the ground is disturbed by some kind of large footprints, although what made them none can tell. They examine the ring and find scattered snowflakes inside the ring, between one pair of stones.

Then a huge shape emerges from the wasp and flies through the sky towards the Hagfish. Against the starry background they can see it is long and winged. The Hagfish starts to flee, and hits the thing with a ballista bolt, but it keeps coming. The PCs watch helplessly as their ride dwindles into the sky. Then the thing catches up with the ship and lands on it. In the light of the ship's torches, they can see the glint of green off the the dragon's scales. On board, there is a brief struggle and two crew are thrown overboard, but the dragon quickly gains control. It orders the ship to fly back to the wasp.

As the Hagfish lands (very bad for a Tradesman class ship), the PCs rush over. The dragon offers to let them live if they drop their weapons and serve him. They hesitate, but keep coming. Mojo stops out in the open and begins to mock the dragon. This blatant disrespect is too much for the beast. It blasts the attackers with a cloud of poison gas and leaps from the ship to pounce on the impudent halfling. Somehow Mojo dodges and survives. But now the dragon's flanks are exposed to Camen and Diyab, who set to work carving it up. Another poison gas attack weakens them, but they fight on. Mojo slips around to work the flank as well, leaving Elmarth to face the dragon's front. Exercising his Ite' and divine favor to full effect, he is nonetheless about to be lunch. The rest of the group is not having much luck either. Then Thump, despite being half-blinded and terrified by the dragon's first attack, leaps into the fray. He grabs a ballista bolt and jumps from the ship on to the dragon's back, driving the bolt in with all of his 12' tall frame. The dragon's head whips around and bites Thump with its poisoned fangs, then whips back and throws his body out onto the frozen plain. But the injury is critical, and the party soon dispatches the dragon.

Capt. Hound orders a 24 hour rest to bury the dead and recover. Most of the PCs are too sick with poison to do much, but Mojo is ok. He goes to meditate (and smoke some pipeweed) in the circle of stones. While sitting, an image appears between two of them. In it, a skeletal figure walking through swirling red clouds turn and looks at him, before the image disappears. On board the wasp ship, named the Dardak, there is a small supply of coins, numerous weapons, star charts, and a strange helm. Hound claims half of the coins and all of the weapons, but leaves the rest for the PCs. The star charts show all of the major bodies of Greyspace. There are 3 additional marks on them: some coordinates on the planet of Borka, the coordinates of an asteroid in the Grinder, and the location where the ship is now. The ship itself is in bad shape, with its interior walls smashed and the port maneuvering wings crushed.

The helm seems to be a misshapen globe of glass enclosed in a wrought iron framework attached to the deck. There are words scratched into the iron, but in an unknown language. Bluish white lights flicker inside the glass. At one point Mojo tries touching the glass and receives a severe electrical shock. There is a flint tipped ash wand chained to the base of the framework. When the flint is touched to the glass the ship moves in the direction opposite of the flint. When this happens, the glass emits a screeching or moaning sound.
Last modified: Wed Jul 21 17:03:54 MDT